US Job Growth Spiked in November, Adding 227,00 Jobs

November saw a sharp increase in job growth, which was anticipated given how severely the October numbers had been skewed by storms and strikes.

Looking past the recent pendulum swing, though, the US labour market is still solid, albeit cooling, and hasn’t dispelled the suspicion that a more significant deterioration is imminent.

LinkedIn’s head of economics, Kory Kantenga, told CNN that the situation is somewhat muddled. “At the moment, the momentum does appear to be moving in a positive direction, generally speaking.”

Bureau of Labour Statistics statistics issued Friday showed that the US economy generated 227,000 jobs last month as weather-related and striking workers returned to work, supporting a continuous stream of employment increases.

The consensus predictions on FactSet showed that economists expected 200,000 new jobs to be created while the unemployment rate remained at 4.1%.

After a massive labour strike at Boeing and temporary job losses from back-to-back hurricanes clouded October, November’s data was anticipated to be a palate cleanser.

According to the first report released in October, only 12,000 new jobs were created. Even if the November data revised it higher (as expected) to a net gain of $36,000, it was still the lowest monthly increase since December 2020. As a result, those workers’ return to work gave November a significant lift.

The unemployment rate, however, increased slightly from 4.1% to 4.2% last month, and more Americans without jobs are waiting longer to obtain employment, which is a sign of a slowdown in hiring. Data released Friday shows that the average length of time people are unemployed is 23.7 weeks, or more than five months, the longest since April 2022.

Noah Yosif, chief economist for the American Staffing Association, told CNN on Friday that the labour market is robust despite long-term trends that are bad. “What we are witnessing is a K-shaped dichotomy of labour market outcomes: Having a job is good, but being unemployed is extremely challenging.”